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Magaluf: Men suspected of gang-raping British teen were not all friends

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MagalufImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Magaluf is a popular holiday destination in the Spanish island of Majorca

Eight men suspected of gang-raping an 18-year-old British woman in Majorca were not all known to each other, Spanish police have said.

Five French and one Swiss tourist were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and violation of the right to privacy earlier this month.

Two more men, both residents in France, were arrested in that country this week and are awaiting extradition.

The alleged attack is said to have taken place in the resort of Magaluf.

"Of the eight [suspects], some knew each other, they weren't all strangers," said a spokesman for the civil guard. "But it was not one group of friends."

The alleged victim is thought to have met a group of young tourists in the early hours of 14 August.

She is believed to have followed them to their hotel, where she was forced to have sexual intercourse and was filmed by the alleged aggressors.

The woman later escaped and was helped by hotel staff after being found in the street.

She was taken to Son Espases hospital in Palma de Mallorca, where she was treated before registering her rape complaint.

Police arrested the first six suspects within hours of the alleged attack and they are in preventive custody.

The pair arrested this week flew from Spain to Baden-Baden in Germany, then travelled to France.

A Spanish judge issued a European detention order and one of them was held in Scherwiller and the other at the airport of Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, both in the north-eastern Alsace region, the civil guard reported.

With the two arrests in France, the Spanish civil guard said it has closed its investigation into this case.

The force said that "the swift and efficient action of this team" in tandem with local police "has permitted the arrest of all those responsible for this brutal attack".

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